Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Shen Ling stared at the hand Huo Yanshen had pressed against his stomach, and he was instantly wide awake, all sleepiness vanishing in an instant.

He turned on the bedside lamp.

The warm yellow light spilled down, fully revealing Huo Yanshen's curled-up posture—his knees were drawn almost to his chest, a thin sheen of cold sweat on his forehead, his sideburns soaked and plastered to his temples.

"Huo Yanshen." Shen Ling called him.

Huo Yanshen didn't answer. He probably thought Shen Ling was asleep, gritting his teeth and bearing it the whole time.

"Huo Yanshen." Shen Ling called again, louder this time.

He got out of bed barefoot, walked around to Huo Yanshen's side, and crouched down, reaching out to cover the hand Huo Yanshen had on his stomach.

The instant his fingertips grazed the back of Huo Yanshen's hand, he realized it was freezing. Moving his hand lower, the area under his palm where the stomach was felt hard and tight, all the muscles spasming.

Huo Yanshen opened his eyes. "I'm fine. Did I wake you? Go back to sleep, it'll pass in a little while."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Shen Ling said, his voice trembling. "Did you take your medicine?"

Huo Yanshen looked down. "..."

Shen Ling stood up and rummaged through the bedside drawer in the hotel room, opening and closing the drawers, only to find nothing but the standard hotel toiletries and two bottles of mineral water.

Shen Ling walked back to the bed. Huo Yanshen had already propped himself up to sit, leaning back against the headboard, his face even paler under the light, his lips white as well.

"When did it start hurting?" Shen Ling asked.

Huo Yanshen said, "...Tonight."

"What time tonight?"

Huo Yanshen said nothing.

"You were already in pain during the meeting, right...?"

"Baby."

"Don't call me that!" Shen Ling's eyes were red-rimmed, looking hurt and indignant. "Why didn't you tell me your stomach hurt? I could've bought you medicine, I could've taken care of you—why didn't you tell me..."

Huo Yanshen was silent for a moment, then eased the pressure of his hand on his stomach a little. "It didn't hurt much on the way back. I just wanted to get back to you as fast as I could."

Shen Ling glared at him, not buying it.

But now wasn't the time to be mad—taking care of Huo Yanshen's symptoms was the priority.

He picked up his phone and texted Caibao, typing in Huo Yanshen's symptoms and medical history.

The result was... terminal illness, late stage!

Shen Ling's knees suddenly went weak.

Huo Yanshen had managed to sit up, leaning against the headboard, and reached over to take Shen Ling's phone for a look.

Caibao was still sending messages nonstop, each one suggesting something even worse.

Huo Yanshen said, at a loss, "Baby, AI isn't reliable."

Shen Ling said, "But it sounds so real..."

Huo Yanshen set the phone on the nightstand, in a very calm tone. "It's just gastritis from not eating regularly in the past. Today it's because I didn't have time to eat, plus I downed that iced Americano on an empty stomach—it probably irritated my stomach lining."

He said it so lightly, but as Shen Ling listened, something hit him.

To describe his own illness so methodically, listing symptoms and triggers one by one so clearly—he could only do that after going through it many times.

And he'd been married to Huo Yanshen for so long, yet he'd never known about any of this.

Shen Ling stood up. "I'll go get you some medicine."

"There's a pharmacy downstairs. I'm coming with you." Huo Yanshen pushed back the covers.

Shen Ling was startled and put both hands on Huo Yanshen's shoulders. "Don't move. Stay lying down!"

Huo Yanshen's stomach was still hurting, and he didn't have the strength to fight anyway. He let Shen Ling push him back into position, watching as Shen Ling frantically threw on a jacket and stuffed his wallet and phone into the pockets.

"I'll send someone with you," Huo Yanshen said.

"Okay." Shen Ling put on his shoes, then turned around at the door, with a fierce look on his face. "Don't you dare move. Wait for me to get back, you hear me?"

Huo Yanshen said, "Got it."

When Shen Ling came downstairs, a security guard was already waiting by the elevator, and next to him stood a man Shen Ling recognized—one of the guys who'd been with Huo Yanshen earlier that day.

Shen Ling nodded at them, and the three of them walked out of the building together, heading into the 24-hour pharmacy next door.

Shen Ling took out his phone and, following the names on it, picked out the boxes one by one.

Huo Yanshen knew exactly which meds he took.

How many times had his stomach hurt in the past?

Suddenly, Shen Ling remembered his past life.

...

It was just a few days into their marriage.

Huo Yanshen had been working overtime for days on end—his assistant said he'd slept less than ten hours in three days. Finally getting one day off at home, he went to the study to handle documents, and Shen Ling ran in clutching a co-op cooking game controller, plopping down on Huo Yanshen's desk.

"Babe! Play games with me!"

Huo Yanshen frowned a little. "Not today."

Huo Yanshen was leaning back in his chair at the time, he didn't look great, but Shen Ling didn't notice. All he noticed was that Huo Yanshen said "no."

It hit him like a ton of bricks. He'd been bored at home all day, and finally Huo Yanshen had time—and he said "no."

Shen Ling stood in the middle of the study, clutching the controller to his chest, tears streaming down his face, his eyes instantly turning into little water fountains.

"You won't even play with me on your day off—you don't really like me... You just married me to have me as some decoration..."

He crouched on the floor and cried, crying his heart out, snatching Huo Yanshen's controller too and hugging both to his chest, refusing to let go.

Huo Yanshen looked at him, not exactly angry, just with a slight frown.

Huo Yanshen said, "Hand me the controller."

"No way!"

Huo Yanshen didn't bother arguing with him anymore. He bent down, one hand catching Shen Ling by the waist, flipping him over and pinning him against the armrest of the sofa, while the other hand landed on his butt with a light smack.

"Smack."

Shen Ling was stunned—this was the first time Huo Yanshen had ever spanked his butt.

Huo Yanshen said, "You gonna be quiet now?"

Shen Ling wanted to resist, but he looked up and caught a glimpse of Huo Yanshen's expression.

He instantly cowered into a ball and handed the controller over without a peep.

Shen Ling's voice was barely a whisper. "Mm."

Huo Yanshen let go, and Shen Ling quickly slipped off the chair, ran back upstairs to the bedroom, and locked the door behind him.

The next day, Shen Ling was still embarrassed and pissed off, so he stormed off and ran home to his parents.

Back then, he thought Huo Yanshen was mad at him for bothering him while he worked. Looking back now, Huo Yanshen had probably had a stomachache all day.

He hadn't even noticed.

Back then, all he could think about was *He won't play with me. He's being mean to me. He doesn't love me anymore.* It never once crossed his mind that when Huo Yanshen said he couldn't play games, that was already the closest he could get to showing vulnerability at that point.

How could he have been so awful in his past life?

After Shen Ling got Huo Yanshen to take his medicine, Huo Yanshen finally looked a little better.

Shen Ling buried his face in Huo Yanshen's chest and whispered, "Babe..."

"Hm?"

"You can spank me..."

Huo Yanshen's eyebrow twitched slightly.

"...On my butt." Shen Ling forced out the last two words.

"?"

"Go on then," Shen Ling said, lying beside him with his face buried in the pillow, arching his bottom toward Huo Yanshen. "I promise I won't run."

After arching, he felt that wasn't sincere enough, so he wiggled again.

Huo Yanshen looked down at him. Shen Ling's lying posture made his waist dip slightly, and the curve of his hips was clearly outlined by the cotton pajama pants—round and full. The pregnancy hormones had made that area softer than before. That wiggle just now was unconscious, but Huo Yanshen's gaze lingered on that curve for a beat.

Shen Ling suddenly felt something.

Something was off!

Lying at this angle, he was pressed right up against the outside of Huo Yanshen's thigh, and he could clearly feel it...

Shen Ling froze instantly, like a rabbit that had spotted something in the grass—ears perked up, body completely still.

Huo Yanshen's voice was a little rough. "Baby, don't do that."

Shen Ling quickly rolled off him and burritoed himself in the blanket.

He realized a serious problem—he'd meant to apologize, but he'd almost turned the apology into something else entirely.

"I-I'm going to bed." Shen Ling pulled the blanket up higher, covering half of his face.

There was some rustling under the blanket. Then a hand emerged from the edge, fingers probing, groping until they found the hem of Huo Yanshen's pajama shirt, and gently pressed over his stomach through the fabric.

The hand was soft and warm, with slightly plump fingertips, like a small piece of mochi warmed by the sun.

Shen Ling kept his palm pressed there earnestly, not daring to press down, just resting it there and rubbing slowly.

Shen Ling's face was almost entirely buried in the blanket, but that hand stubbornly stayed on his skin, rubbing and rubbing until the movements slowed, eventually turning into an unconscious gentle caress.

After a while, Shen Ling felt drowsiness really washing over him—the whole day of waiting had worn him out.

Just as he was about to drift off, Shen Ling's mouth slipped free from his brain's control and mumbled something vaguely.

"...Babe, you can spank my butt later too."

Huo Yanshen, "..."

Huo Yanshen quickly reached out and gently covered Shen Ling's mouth with his palm.

Shen Ling let out a muffled "Mm" into his palm, struggled for less than a second, then gave up completely, his breathing evening out into a slow, steady rhythm.

Asleep, Shen Ling's lips were slightly parted, soft and warm against Huo Yanshen's palm. His sleeping expression was innocent and utterly unguarded, as if the person who'd said those things moments ago wasn't him at all.

Huo Yanshen took his hand away from Shen Ling's mouth, leaned down, and pressed a feather-light kiss to his forehead. Then he scooped Shen Ling up, blanket and all, and held him tightly in his arms.

*

Just as the sky was starting to lighten, Huo Yanshen woke up.

The pain in his stomach had completely faded, and his body was back to its familiar, controllable state. He turned his head and found Shen Ling curled up beside him, fast asleep.

One of Shen Ling's hands had reached over, resting on Huo Yanshen's stomach through the pajama shirt. His fingers were curled, his palm warm, pressed against the spot that had hurt the most the night before—he must have been holding it there for God knows how long.

Huo Yanshen looked down and saw Shen Ling's lips moving slightly. "Doesn't hurt, doesn't hurt..."

Huo Yanshen said softly, "Baby."

Shen Ling was still talking in his sleep. His brow furrowed, and his hand rubbed again. "Doesn't hurt... huff..."

Huo Yanshen, "..."

"Baby, I'm already better."

Shen Ling's eyes snapped open.

Huo Yanshen's complexion was back to normal, and his lips had regained their color.

And Shen Ling's hands were still pressed neatly over Huo Yanshen's stomach.

"Does it still hurt?" Shen Ling's voice was hoarse from just waking up. He leaned in to study Huo Yanshen's face, checking him over.

"It doesn't hurt now." Huo Yanshen took his hand off his stomach, held it in his palm, turned it over, and checked it.

Last night, Shen Ling had been rubbing his stomach, and Huo Yanshen was worried he might have rubbed his own palm sore. Luckily, his palm was still fair and pink, nothing wrong with it.

Shen Ling let out a relieved breath and said seriously, "Good. If it hadn't gotten better, I would've gotten mad."

Huo Yanshen's hand covered the back of his head, slowly stroking his hair. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

Shen Ling gave a satisfied nod, fumbled for his phone on the nightstand, and unlocked it to see a message from Zhou Lin.

Zhou Lin: "Mr. Shen, I've gone back and forth with the curation team, and we all agree your work is the most intriguing. I'm thinking of putting it in the main exhibition area. Would that work for you?"

Shen Ling stared at the words "main exhibition area" on the screen, blinked a few times, and flipped the phone around to show Huo Yanshen.

Huo Yanshen glanced at it. "Put it wherever you like."

Shen Ling took the phone back and replied to Zhou Lin with a simple "Okay."

*

The jewelry show was set to open in five days.

Sure enough, just as Zhou Lin had said, within just a week after it ended, Shen Ling's collection set Hong Kong's jewelry scene on fire.

That very night, someone on social media did a frame-by-frame breakdown of the jewelry's craftsmanship, asking if anyone knew who the designer was.

No one knew.

The comment thread ran into the tens of thousands.

Some people said the designer was a reclusive old master craftsman; others guessed it was a side account run by a former chief designer who'd left some luxury brand; still others suggested it might just be a rich second-generation playing around for fun. Every wild guess imaginable appeared, but not a single person hit on the right answer.

Then, out of nowhere, a media outlet dropped a bombshell.

The mysterious designer's identity was revealed—

It was none other than the never-publicly-seen wife of the Huo family's patriarch.